The present invention relates generally to supporting means for supporting a screening device in a frame structure, which has at least one pair of opposed frame pieces, said supporting means comprising a pair of bracket members provided for mounting on a respective frame piece of said pair of opposed frame pieces and a pair of coupling members positioned at either of two opposing ends of the screening device.
More specifically the invention relates to a bracket member and a coupling member of such supporting means, a window or a door provided with a pair of bracket members and a screening device provided with a pair of coupling members. The screening device may be an electric device.
Supporting means for screening devices are known from e.g. EP-A-1 003 953, EP-A-1 151 176 and WO-A-2005/008013.
The general idea disclosed in these documents is to provide a pair of standardized bracket members on two opposite frame pieces of e.g. a window to provide for subsequent mounting a screening device in according with the desire of a user of the window. The screening device may e.g. be a roller curtain, a Venetian blind, a roller shade or a pleated curtain. The screening device should on the other hand be provided with coupling members provided for cooperation with the bracket members.
The bracket members are preferably minor flat elements, which may be mounted by the window manufacturer, without their presence disturbing the overall appearance of the window in case no screening device is mounted.
Thus each bracket member comprises a base for abutment on the frame piece, a main face opposite the base and at least one outer engagement side, preferably two mutually opposite, outer engagement sides, for engaging a coupling member of the screening device. In most embodiments shown in the documents mentioned, two parallel, opposite outer engagement sides are present on the bracket member for cooperating with two opposite, parallel inner engagement sides on the coupling member. However EP-A-1 151 176 discloses also embodiments in which only one outer engagement side of the bracket member is used, the bracket member being mounted so close to a third frame piece of the window (or door) that this third frame piece fulfills the function of the second outer engagement side.
The features of the known supporting means mentioned so far are generally applicable to the present invention.
The mentioned documents generally relate to the mounting of manual operated devices, i.e. non-electric devices, but EP-A-1 003 953 does suggest an embodiment in which a zone of the main face of a bracket member is made of an electrically conducting material and a wall part of a corresponding coupling member likewise comprises a zone of an electrically conductive material to provide for connecting an electric power source to an electric screening device. It is however for different reasons not desirable to make parts of the main face of an electrically conducting material, said main face being always exposed if no screening device is mounted.